S.D. mountain lion found dead in Oklahoma

By Richard Green, Associated Press Writer | Saturday, June 05, 2004

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OKLAHOMA CITY - A mountain lion that was given a radio collar in South Dakota covered nearly 700 miles and crossed several states in less than nine months before being hit by a train and killed in Oklahoma.

The 114-pound animal was found May 27 by a railroad worker near Red Rock, about 80 miles north of Oklahoma City, Alan Peoples, wildlife chief for the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Department, said Friday.

A railroad worker inspecting a section of track found the animal about 6 feet from the tracks. State game warden supervisor Tracy Daniel went to investigate and spotted the animal on flat ground near the track embankment.

"I was surprised," Daniel said. "All I can relate it to is I've run over two bobcats on state highways and one on a county road. They just jumped down at the last moment."

The mountain lion was last tracked by its collar in the northwestern part of the Black Hills of Wyoming on Sept. 3, according to Jonathan Jenks, a wildlife professor at South Dakota State University. He is conducting a research project in the Black Hills of western South Dakota in which this mountain lion and 34 others have been collared.

He was stunned the animal was able to cover 667 straight-line miles since Sept. 3, about twice as far as this type of cat has been documented to travel.

"We're happy we found him," Jenks said. "It's such a good scientific finding that it overwhelms the fact that he was dead when he was found."

The mountain lion was about a year old and weighed 80 pounds when it was treed with hounds, tranquilized and fitted with a tracking collar on Feb. 24, 2003. By Sept. 3, it had moved 58 miles northwest into Wyoming's Black Hills.

It is possible it then followed river systems to Oklahoma. Its body was found not far from the Arkansas River.

It isn't unusual for wild animals to be hit by trains, perhaps while chasing prey, Jenks said.

The Oklahoma State University Diagnostics Laboratory determined that that the animal died from blunt force trauma to the head, and there was no evidence of a gunshot wound. An investigator from the Kay County District Attorney's office examined the blood spatter pattern and determined the animal died where it was found. It was still wearing its radio collar, and its stomach contained deer parts.

Jenks' study is aimed at documenting home ranges of the animal, its population size, survival rate and dispersal patterns. He is studying a population of 145 of the big cats in the Black Hills.